We must end the economics of doom

AS a young person I am very concerned with the future of the earth.

It should be clear to everyone that ‘business as usual’ is not an option. Climate change is happening now.

I am no economist, but a market that does not value natural services properly is highly destructive and ultimately will fail.

Nicholas Stern, who advised the British government on the economics of climate change and development, has already made this clear to us.

He describes the failure to incorporate the costs of climate change in the prices of fossil fuel as “a market failure on the greatest scale the world has ever seen”. Our economy fails to calculate the indirect environmental costs of goods and services.

Take this example from China. In 1998, the Yangtze river basin suffered devastating flooding and damage was estimated at $30 billion. In response, the government banned cutting of trees along the river, realising the trees were worth more in the ground than as timber. The market value was in fact out by a factor of three because they did not envisage the environmental cost of removing those trees.

Today we are actually subsidising the destruction of our planet. We need political leaders who understand the relationship between the economy and its environmental support systems.

David Neavyn

Barrack Green

Kinsale

Co Cork